


can't buy me love

by nateheywood



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Angst, Coldflash Valentine's Day Exchange 2019, Cute, Fights, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gift Fic, Gift Giving, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Leonard & Lisa Snart Sibling Feels, Leonard Snart Lives, Lewis Snart's A+ Parenting, M/M, Metahuman Leonard Snart, POV Barry Allen, Past Child Abuse, Protective Mick Rory, Romance, Speedforce Kisses, Wooing, also he gives len flowers with ~meanings~, and it's going well until suddenly it isnt, barry is best friends with caitlin and cisco and it's cute, barry tries to woo len with presents, im not the only one whos done it lets step up everyone, let's make that a tag, lisa is a good baby sister
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-26 02:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17737691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nateheywood/pseuds/nateheywood
Summary: When a Leonard Snart with uncontrollable cold powers is shoved at Team Flash by a very concerned Sara Lance, Barry decides to seize the opportunity while he has it: woo Captain Cold. And what better way to woo a thief than to buy their love with gifts?Or, five times Barry attempts to seduce Len with a present, and one time Len returns the favor.





	can't buy me love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anthela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthela/gifts).



> this is my very first coldflash, and coupled with the fact that i procrastinated until the last second... it was hard to write. but, overall, i'm proud (it got so long?!), and i hope the gift recipient likes what i churned out!!
> 
> the prompt: len and barry use their powers to create one of a kind gifts for each other
> 
> thank you to SheWhoWalksUnseen (@areyouscarletcold) for betaing!!!! this event was so fun to do with you!

“I’m fine,” Snart says, and the way he says it tells Barry that this is at least the hundredth time he’s announced this. “We don’t need to be here.  _ Really. _ ”

Sara gives him a look, and she does it so quickly it has to be some sort of learned reflex from the many hundred times Snart must have said it.

“Tell that to the break room,” someone Barry hasn’t met yet - Nate, he thinks they told him - mutters. Snart glares at him. Rory does too, despite the fact that he’s the one who manhandled Snart off of the Waverider.

“What did he do to the break room?” Cisco asks, alarmed. Everyone ignores him.

“Listen,” Sara says, gaze locking onto Barry’s. He tries not to shirk away from the intensity of it. “Can you help him or not?”

Barry glances at Snart to find him taking interest in the floor, and looks back at Sara, her stare unwavering. He wants to say yes, and not just because he’s getting the feeling that Sara won’t be very happy if he says no. He’s been where Snart is - albeit, not as…  _ difficult,  _ a place - and having superpowers sucks when you don’t know how to control them. 

And maybe,  _ maybe  _ it would be nice to get to know him. Spend some time with him that lasts longer than the couple hour visits the Waverider sometimes makes. 

Maybe even go out sometime. On a date. 

But it’s mostly the first thing!

“I don’t know,” he says slowly, because he can’t bring himself to promise something that isn’t one hundred percent guaranteed. Okay, he  _ could _ , if Sara didn’t look quite so protective. “Cryokinesis isn’t the same thing as running really fast.”

“It’s the opposite,” Cisco adds, helpfully, “especially if he can reach absolute zero like you said.”

Sara sighs. “Barry,” she starts, and her tone is gentle, like she’s about to say something that might hurt Barry’s feelings. “We’re not really here for  _ your _ help. We think Caitlin might be able to help him.”

“What?” Barry says.

“ _ What _ ?” Cisco parrots, but with more feeling.

“If I wanted a metahuman with a completely different power set to help me, we’d be set,” Snart drawls, jerking his head at Nate, who lifts his hands in a  _ ‘what can I say? _ ’ kind of gesture.

“We even tried. Trouble is, I had trouble  _ accessing _ my powers when I got them, not trying to keep them under control,” he adds.

Snart presses his lips together at the phrasing and tugs his gloves on more securely. Normally, Barry wouldn’t blink an eye at the parka Snart’s sporting in the middle of May, but he suspects it has something to do with the powers he’d developed since the freak accident with the cold gun.

“So you need Caitlin,” Barry says flatly, not following.

“Caitlin helped you get your powers under control, right?” Ray pipes up from the back of the pack. “She figured out everything. Maybe she can do that for Len.”

“I can ask her,” Barry says, even as his heart sinks. Caitlin being willing to help her former captor? Not super likely. 

Barry’s chances of spending time with Snart seem to be getting lower and lower, and Snart seems to agree, judging by the smug look he gives Barry. “Chances seem to be pretty low,” Snart says around a smirk, “judging by the look on Scarlet’s face. Might as well leave while we still have our dignity.”

“Nobody’s going anywhere,” Sara says sharply, shooting Snart another look. She then nods at Barry, raising her eyebrows. “I’m sure Caitlin will be fine, as long as Barry asks nicely.”

As Barry fumbles out his phone, Rory and Sara turn towards Snart, expressions softening (Sara) and hardening (Rory) as they talk to him. Snart, already doing his best imitation of a ruffled cat, manages to look even more disgruntled when Ray decides to join in.

He watches them as he talks to Caitlin, and, to his surprise, he doesn’t even need to even kind of persuade her before she agrees with a startling amount of enthusiasm.

“What?” he asks, because is that  _ excitement  _ that’s coming across the line?

“I mean, think of the possibilities,” she says. “Think of what we’ll discover! Maybe it’ll even help us fight other metahumans.”

“But, it’s Snart,” Barry says slowly. He really should leave it alone and let her agree without question, but he’s always been his own worst enemy. “He, he  _ kidnapped  _ you, Caitlin.”

There’s a pause. “You know those foxes that they tamed in Russia?” she says lightly. Barry snorts, and he can hear Caitlin echo it. “It’s fine. Really. Besides, Snart was barely there - I might have answered differently if it was Rory.”

Barry smiles at the phone. Right as he makes eye contact with Snart. 

There’s a strange, awkward moment where Snart looks at him, frowning, and Barry just stares back, smile freezing in place. Before Barry can drop his grin and desperately communicate with his eyes that no, he  _ hadn’t  _ been staring and smiling at Snart like some sort of freak, Snart looks away. 

“Shit,” he says under his breath. 

“Hm?”

“Uh, nothing,” he says, looking away from the Legends. “Thank you, Caitlin. So much.”   


“You owe me,” she says, teasing.

“Big Belly Burger?” 

“You know it.”

Barry laughs and says his goodbyes, before hanging up and waiting awkwardly for Sara and Rory to finish giving whatever talk they were giving to Snart. 

“She’s in,” he says, waving his phone in the air once they all look back at him. 

Sara grins. “Thank God.”

 

-

 

1.

 

When Barry gets Snart that first present (if it could even be counted as such), he has no idea that he’s starting a miniature personal quest: Operation Woo Leonard Snart.

It’s their third day with Snart, and they’ve made little to no progress. Despite the fact that Snart, Caitlin, and Cisco have been in the lab nearly all day every day, training and researching relentlessly, Snart still seems to have absolute shit control of his powers, blasting lab equipment with ice, snow, or some variant of whatever the cold gun had blasted, and falling into dangerously hypothermic states with no rhyme or reason.

In fact, just as Barry’d left for a food run, Snart had nearly speared Caitlin with a defensive ring of icicles shooting up from the floor around him - Cisco had startled him by accidently dropping his large slushie somewhere behind him. 

It’s a mess. 

Barry doesn’t know how to help him - his powers had never really proved themselves dangerous to himself or others unless he really tried - and while Caitlin’s research is producing results, they aren’t very helpful ones.

Barry still can’t read Snart very well, but from what he can see, he’s more than a little upset with his predicament. When Cisco had asked if he wanted him to call Lisa and tell her that her brother was home, Snart had shut him down with a harsh “ _ No. _ ” No doubt it was some sort of protective instinct, to keep her away from someone who could hurt her without warning, even if that someone was Snart himself. It’s admirable, but certainly not helpful, especially since she might be the thing that helps him calm down and focus.

Barry wants to help in some way, even if it’s not with a how-to-be-a-metahuman crash course - and it’s not just because he has a crush! He honestly feels for him - he can’t imagine what it’s like to be isolated during a period of struggle, even if it  _ was _ for the safety of everyone.

So, if Barry can’t help with the big stuff, he can help with the small stuff. Ibuprofen for the headaches Snart’s been having seems like a good place to start - and if Snart starts to question him, he can always just say he’s sick of Snart pinching his nose and snapping at everyone.

So he grabs a full bottle of Ibuprofen at the store before speeding off to get the Big Belly Burger, and decides that the best way to give Snart something is to not make a big deal out of it at all. So when he practically skids back into the lab, food in hand, he shoves the bottle into Snart’s hands on his way to the table Cisco had cleared for eating.

Barry lays out all of the food before finally letting go of the Speedforce in order to watch Snart’s reaction, heart beating so fast he’s worried it’s been left behind in the Speedforce. He’s a little ashamed that he’s so nervous, but  _ God,  _ if Snart is somehow upset by his gift Barry  _ will _ walk himself into the Missouri River.

Barry waits for a glare, or at least for Snart to tuck the bottle away into one of the millions of pockets in his parka without ceremony, but Snart manages to surprise him: he smiles. 

It very quickly turns into a smirk, but Barry’s probably going to be riding this high for at least a week.

“Drugs,” Snart says, raising an eyebrow at Barry as he comes closer to the table. “You sure do know the way to a man’s heart.”

“I thought it was through his stomach,” Barry retorts cheekily, trying not to let the elation carry him off the ground. Snart snags a box of fries without breaking eye contact, and Barry tries his hardest not to grin at him. Snart’s smirk, if possible, grows even wider.

“That, too.”

It’s not until after they’ve all eaten lunch and are back to practicing in a newly tech-free room that Barry has the idea, mostly because instead of checking whatever boxes Caitlin ordered him to on his clipboard, he’s thinking about the little smile he’d gotten out of Snart with his present.

He thinks, oh, I’d give Snart thousands of presents if it meant I got a smile every time, and it’s like a lightbulb goes off above his head. ( _ Listen -  _ he knows his crush sounds a little intense, but maybe it’s because he has a little more than a crush on Snart.)

Feelings. He’s been having honest-to-God feelings about Leonard Snart. He’s an adult. He can admit this to himself. 

Anyway. The lightbulb.

Snart likes getting presents. There’s no way he doesn’t. He’s a thief, a very materialistic profession, and even most non-criminals like to get gifts. Plus, it’s fun for Barry to give - he loves it, especially when it could draw a smile out of someone who has a difficult time being genuine. It’s not hard to put two and two together.

Barry gets the very sudden and thrilling idea to woo Snart, and he commits to it instantly. It’s genius. What better way to get a date with a thief than to buy his love?

 

-

 

2.

 

Barry hesitates for around a week, mostly because he can’t seem to come up with a good excuse to get Snart anything, but also because he’s a little bit nervous. Just a little bit.

Normally, he would have just asked Snart out by now - they’ve been around each other nonstop for over a week, they’ve established a good rapport, and Barry doesn’t think Snart hates him. Perfect climate to ask a guy out in. The thing is, Snart’s still a little prickly. He’s skittish every time Barry tries to move the conversation towards something more intimate, and he’s pretty sure Snart’s mind is nowhere near the idea of dating someone, with keeping Lisa away and having trouble keeping the space around him at room temperature. Wooing him with gifts is a great way to soften him. Too bad Barry can’t get close enough to know what Snart even  _ wants _ in a gift.

Ultimately, it takes an intense craving for coffee to get him to make his first move.

He steps into Jitters with every intention to order a Flash for himself, down it, and speed off to the labs, when he spots the sign for new coffee drinks, a cursive  _ Captain Cold  _ in blue at the bottom.

Barry obviously orders two, because it’s a perfectly subtle gift for Snart and he can’t  _ not _ try one for himself, either. 

He manages to speed to the labs without spilling anything, which is a first, and almost immediately Cisco is there, making grabby hands at one of the coffees.

“Hey!” Barry says, frowning and speeding backwards a few feet. Cisco lets his arms drop limply, confused.

“Please?” he tries, clearly thinking that Barry was angling for manners, and Barry almost laughs. 

“It’s not for you,” Barry says. Cisco blinks, raising his eyebrows.

“Oh?” he says, and Barry does not miss the attitude. “Then who?”

“Me,” Barry says, raising one coffee. “And Snart.”

“ _ Snart? _ ” Cisco repeats. “You got a coffee for  _ Captain Cold,  _ but not for your best friend?”

Barry winces. “I maybe wasn’t thinking about it like that?”

“Like what? A nice thing you do for your friends without playing favorites?”

“Cisco--”

“And I can’t believe Snart is your favorite? Like, he’s hot, I get it, but--”

“Cisco,  _ oh my God,”  _ Barry says through his teeth, feeling his face heat up, and Cisco looks at him for a second before his eyes light up in an evil genius sort of way.

“Holy - you have a crush on Snart! You’re blushing!”

“I--”

“This still doesn’t mean I forgive you for not getting me a coffee,” Cisco says. “You owe me now - you’re lucky I didn’t end our friendship.”

“You mean it’s not weird?” Barry sputters, having a hard time following Cisco’s rapid-fire line of thought. “I mean, it’s obviously not weird, but to  _ you _ \--”

“Maybe a little,” Cisco interrupts (again), “but with the way you’ve been following him around? Not a shock. And... maybe he’s growing on me.”

Barry knows Cisco’s avoiding the topic of Snart’s kidnapping (and subsequent torture) of he and his brother for Barry’s sake, but he lets it slide. Besides, Cisco and Snart  _ have _ established a pretty entertaining back and forth over the past week, maybe even better than what Barry can carry with either of them.

Barry feels a tension he didn’t know he was carrying leave his body, and he can’t help the little smile that comes across his face. “Does this mean I can talk to you about it?”

Cisco’s face goes from reassuring to alarmed in the blink of an eye, and he holds his hands up as if to ward off whatever Barry might say next. “I don’t think--”

“Thank God,” Barry says, pretending not to hear him. “I don’t like keeping stuff from you, you know that.” It’s not necessarily the whole truth - he wasn’t  _ actively  _ keeping his feelings a secret - but it makes Cisco give in.

“Always here to help, buddy,” Cisco says, and, with a close lipped smile, he pats Barry’s shoulder. “Snart’s in the practice room,” he adds, passing Barry to head into another room. “Just in case you wanted to know.”

“Thanks.”

The practice room is an extra laboratory near the end of the hall that they’ve converted into a training room of sorts, having stripped it of all tech and put several superheaters that Cisco had whipped up in the empty spaces. Snart spends most of his time not spent in Caitlin’s hospital bed in there, practicing controlling what and how much comes out of the palms of his hands, along with lowering the temperature at will. 

Barry speeds his way there (Cisco calls it being impatient, Barry calls it being efficient), stopping just in front of the door to peer in at Snart, mustering up the courage that has suddenly left him.

After several minutes of watching Snart shoot out variants of icicles, snow, and whatever the cold gun produced, body language not giving away whether each shot was purposeful or not, Barry walks in, trying his hardest not to squeeze the cardboard cups too hard. He almost immediately wishes for a coat - the temperature has to be somewhere in the single digits.

“Barry,” Snart greets, voice a low drawl, and Barry suspects that he’s been aware of Barry watching him for five minutes. 

“Snart,” Barry says back, trying not to blush at the idea of being outed as some sort of stalker. There’s a few moments of silence as snow puffs out of Snart’s fingertips, and Barry manages to speak past his embarrassment.

“I brought coffee,” he says, raising the cups and his eyebrows. Snart turns around on his heel, head cocked slightly to the side. His cheeks and nose are flushed from exertion and cold, and it’s unfairly attractive.

“They give you an extra?” he asks, one eyebrow lifting slightly, and Barry shakes his head as Snart reaches for one of the cups.

“No, I - I got one for you. It’s a Captain Cold.”

Snart huffs a laugh as he takes the lid off of his, letting the steam rise to the air. He inhales. “Mint,” he says, smirking. “Cute.”

Barry grins at him before taking a sip of his own coffee, ignoring the way it burns his tongue. He’s alway been a little too impatient to wait for his coffee to cool, even before the Speedforce. 

The drink is  _ delicious.  _ Minty, but not in a candy cane sort of way - more like a fresh sprig of spearmint has been mixed into a barely-there taste of chocolate. 

“Do you actually taste this good, Snart, or is it just the drink?” Barry says, because he has no brain to mouth filter.

Three things happen at once: Snart smirks, Snart’s coffee (and hand) are immediately enveloped in a chunk of ice, and the room temp drops to what has to be the negatives.

“I am so  _ sorry, _ ” Barry says, after a good moment’s worth of shocked silence has passed between them. Snart’s smirk has long since faded into annoyance and something that Barry can’t quite read (embarrassment? Not possible), and it doesn’t help Barry feel any less awkward about the situation. “I wasn’t - I didn’t want to - I mean, I--”

“ _ God,  _ do you ever shut up?” Snart snaps, and Barry’s mouth slams shut. He grimaces, feeling more awkward than he’d ever thought possible.

Snart sighs and shuts his eyes, letting his shoulders drop. His ice coated hand comes to rest against the crook of his left elbow, and Barry tries not to stare at the way his other hand is trembling. Barry watches as he inhales, long and drawn out, and exhales just as slowly. Barry sits through around three more rounds of this before he can’t help but speak again.

“What are you  _ doing _ ?”

Snart opens his eyes to narrow them at Barry in a glare. “I’m calming myself down,” he says. “You’re not helping. Go away.”

“I don’t think what you’re doing is helping either.” 

“And you would know  _ how _ ?”

“I mean, has it ever helped before?” Snart’s lack of a response is answer enough, and Barry takes a deep breath. “Yeah. Thought so. Listen, I think I can help - I used to vibrate without meaning to when I got anxious.”

Snart just looks at him, wary, but allows Barry to step closer in order to see his hands better. They’re still shaking a little, especially when Barry reaches out to touch the frozen hand, his own heart pumping at the thought of skin-to-(almost) skin contact with the other man.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” Barry reassures him. It’s a little strange for Snart to be so afraid of him  _ now  _ of all the actually  _ helpful _ times to be afraid of the Flash, but maybe the fact that Snart is injured and Barry isn’t is changing something about the way Snart sees him.

“Please,” Snart says derisively, and, okay, maybe Barry gets a little defensive. He can be intimidating - he’s feared more than the police force!

“C’mon,” Barry says, glancing up at Snart’s face, unimpressed. “I can see you shaking.”

“Had a...  _ bad experience _ that was almost exactly like this,” Snart says by way of explanation, looking up at the ceiling. “Ended up with my hand shattered across the floor of a timeship.”

Barry snaps his head up to look at Snart full on. “ _ What.” _

Snart shrugs, his entire aura one of nonchalance except for the part where he won’t look at Barry’s face. “I was in handcuffs. Was the only way I could think to get out of them in as little time as I had.”

Barry wants to push for more, wants to know why Snart was there in the first place, or why he needed to get out so quickly, but clearly  _ something  _ about the situation was uncomfortable to remember so he decides to leave it alone. “And your hand?”

“Gideon,” Snart says, looking back at Barry, as if that explains it all, and really, it does.

Barry hums in realization before stepping back again, holding eye contact with Snart. God, his eyes are so blue.

Snart smirks at him, drumming the fingers of his good hand on his arm. “So. What are we doing? Yoga?”

“Ha,” Barry says flatly, before straightening his posture. “And no. We’re doing breathing exercises.”   


After around fifteen minutes of coaching, the ice on Snart’s hand is racing back towards his palm, and Barry now has permission to call Snart “Len”.

He’s elated.

 

-

 

3.

 

The next gift doesn’t happen until around two weeks later, because Barry is suddenly spending a lot more time around Len and helping him control his powers, and he doesn’t want to ruin any progress that he’s making by just being near the thief. It’s not until they reach a sort of equilibrium in their foundling friendship that Barry decides that it’s time for the next step.

And the next step, for Barry, is flowers.

He almost doesn’t do it - he waffles on it for around a week, afraid that somehow it’ll offend Len, considering they’re both men (he’s only ever dated women - unless you count Jason in high school, which he doesn’t), but after a short conversation with Cisco he decides to go for it. Len doesn’t seem the type to get upset over something like that, anyways - and who doesn’t like getting flowers every once in a while?

He doesn’t know what Len’s favorite flower is, or if he even has one. He can’t ask for fear of giving himself away, so he goes onto some flower meanings website and plans a bouquet, because he’s in the process of wooing a man and only the best is allowed.

So he has a florist from the little shop a few blocks from his apartment throw together some daffodils, lilacs, and peonies. Overall, it doesn’t look like a bouquet to give someone you’re trying to win over, but red roses seemed to heavy handed and Barry is already pretty attached to this bouquet, so he writes the meanings on a card and has the florist tie it to one of the flowers.

He doesn’t speed to the labs this time, worried that the flowers will get yanked off of their stems by the force of it, and, as a result, is later than he wanted to be.

He enters the labs with much ceremony, peering around for Len and looking at Caitlin when he doesn’t find him, silently asking where he could be. Cisco is nowhere to be found - no doubt spending some time with Lisa (Len still has no idea, and Cisco had made Barry swear to secrecy once it was made clear that Barry might possibly betray Cisco for Len).

Caitlin’s gaze flicks from Barry’s face to his bouquet and back to his face again, looking impressed in an amused way that makes Barry feel like he’s somehow made it too ‘over the top’. 

“I’m gonna guess those aren’t for me,” she says, turning back to whatever she was plugging into the computer. “They’re for Cisco, right?”

“Haha,” Barry says, rolling his eyes. “Where is he?”

“Who? Cisco?”

Barry just looks at her. He tries not to smile when she finally breaks and laughs. “Okay, fine! He’s obviously in the practice room. He’s really only ever in two places, Barry.”

Barry presses his lips together in a mock annoyed expression. “Just wanted to make sure.”

Barry’s taken to knocking at the door to the practice room ever since he’d barged in and proceeded to slide on an ice-coated floor all the way to the opposite wall, smacking against it and falling to the floor on his ass. Len had laughed for at least five minutes before he’d bothered to help Barry up, but luckily the ice had melted fairly quickly with Len’s mind off of it.

(And maybe it had been worth it, just to hear Len laugh so freely.)

So, with that in mind, Barry raps on the door and waits for Len to tell him that it’s all clear before stepping in, holding the flowers in front of him and not bothering to wipe the grin off of his face.

Despite this, it falls pretty quickly, because as soon as Barry’s all the way into the room, Len whirls around and starts shooting at him.

He’s ambushed, Len pelting what looks like snowballs at a rapid fire speed straight at Barry’s chest. Barry starts laughing at the machine gun fire of snowballs from Len’s palms and tries to put his hands up to ward off the attack before his stomach bottoms out in realization.

“Stop, stop, STOP!” Barry screeches, and maybe it’s undignified, but he paid thirty dollars for those flowers and they were so  _ perfect. _

Len, to his credit, does stop immediately, and Barry really would take the time to applaud his improved control (really, Len had caught on so quickly that Barry wonders if he didn’t sneak back into the labs after hours and practice some more), if he wasn’t staring at a blossomless bouquet.

“Is that… a  _ bouquet _ ?” Len asks, and Barry can’t tell if he’s horrified or just that surprised.

Barry tears his eyes away from the complete wreck of his gift and looks at Len sadly. “It was.”

“You got me a bouquet,” Len says flatly, and Barry tries to hold back his smile.

“Presumptuous to assume it was for you.”

“Hm, very,” Len agrees, smirking back. “Well? Are you going to give it to me?”

Barry raises his eyebrows. “You want this.”

“Not particularly, but it might give your self esteem the boost it clearly needs,” Len says, and he gives Barry’s body a once-over that makes him very aware of the ways he’s slouching in disappointment. He straightens, giving a disbelieving laugh.

“Okay,” he says, shaking his head, and he hands Len the bundle of stems. There are still a few smaller daffodils attached, but the rest of the blossoms are scattered around Barry in a parody of some massacre.

Len lifts up the bouquet to better inspect it, expression amused, and he immediately finds the little handwritten card that Barry had written. Barry wants to bury his face in his hands, suddenly embarrassed. 

“So you’ve made some progress on your control?” Barry asks before Len can say anything, fearful of a rejection or a mockery of the lengths Barry went for this bouquet. Len’s gaze snaps up to him, cold and calculating, and he must decide to have mercy on Barry because he sets the stems on a table and leans against it, cocking his head to the side.

“I have.”   


Barry gives him a half smile. “And you decided to show me by pelting me with snowballs?”

Len just smirks, looking inordinately pleased with himself. Barry makes a show of peering out the window, looking up at the cloudy sky. “You know, it’s close to winter, and with my speed… let’s just say you’d better watch out when it snows.”   


“I’ll sleep with one eye open,” Len promises. “Wouldn’t want the Flash to get the jump on me.”

Barry grins at him, and then they just stand there, staring at each other. Barry can feel it on the tip of his tongue - he could just ask Len out right now. It felt natural to. But Len has just started to relax around Barry, has just started to drop his drawl and sit in silence with him.

“Anything else you can do?” Barry asks, and Len grins at him, sharp and mischievous.

“I was hoping you’d ask.”

 

-

 

4.

 

Barry, in true fashion, completely drops the ball on his next gift.

Like, completely and utterly fucks it up. Like,  _ ignoring all the warning signs _ fucks it up. It’s in traditional Barry fashion, in which he gets stubborn about something and won’t let it go until it bites him in the ass, but that really only makes Barry feel worse about it.

But anyway. The gift. Or - what’s  _ meant  _ to be a gift

He wants to go all out on it - a way to swoop Len off of his feet without  _ actually  _ doing any swooping. His mind naturally drifts towards Len’s love of stealing, fine art, and jewels, and he soon finds himself flipping through the digital copy of Len’s criminal record that Cisco had nabbed before Barry’d wiped everything in the name of the deal he’d made with the Rogues. (He’d felt guilty about not being honest in their deal up until Len had betrayed him - Len denies ever betraying them, citing a loophole, but the feeling is still there! - and even then he’d still felt a little squirm of guilt.)

He finds out that there’s a failed thievery attributed to Len dated back in 1992 - the only one not to result in either a success for Len or an arrest for the police. It probably still rubs Len the wrong way to think about it - Barry recalls him saying something like “at least if you go to prison, you can gain back your rep by executing an elaborate escape plan” - and he’d probably get a kick out of Barry offering to help him steal it (which really, is the greatest gift Barry could possibly give him: Barry committing a crime).

Obviously, Barry still has to work out some kinks - like how, exactly, he’s going to help Len steal without actually breaking the law, and somehow getting it back to the owners - but he still tells Cisco about it when they’re hanging out at his apartment playing video games.

“I know you’re not interested, but I think I have the perfect plan for my next gift,” Barry says in between rounds of Smash Bros. “It might be good enough that I can actually ask Len out afterwards.”

“I’m interested,” Cisco says, sounding not at all interested. “And - just saying - you could have asked him out like, the second he got here.”

Barry ignores him - after the third time arguing with Cisco and Caitlin about it, he’d given up. “I’m going to help Len steal the Lancaster Ruby.”

Cisco snaps to full attention, eyes wide. “ _ What? _ Why on Earth would you do that?”

“Don’t worry, I wouldn’t - I’m not going to actually  _ steal  _ it. I mean, we will, but I’ll figure out some way to put it back. Len might be up for just the experience even if I go back in to replace it. He’s always mentioning how I’d make a great addition to his Rogues.”

Cisco scooches up the couch, straightening from where he was slouching with a bowl of Cheetos, which he sets to the side. “Maybe - but why not something  _ not  _ worth thirty million dollars?”

“The ruby is the best part about it,” Barry says earnestly, sitting up to copy Cisco. “It’s like, the one job that he missed without getting arrested. This could serve as like, a comeback or something.”

Cisco just frowns at him, pressing his lips together. “Barry, you being a thief sounds totally badass, don’t get me wrong - but this sounds like a bad idea. Who’s to say Snart won’t just steal it anyway? He’s not exactly known for his honesty.”

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Barry says, waving him off, because he’s really not worried about that. He and Len have gotten relatively close, and even if that wasn’t enough for Barry, Len had been running around with the Legends for over a year now - it has to have rubbed off on him at least somewhat. “And you know what the best part is? Lewis Snart is also on record for going to jail over this thing, a few years before Len went for it. It’s like, three different gifts in one.”

Cisco grimaces, and this is where the first warning sign that Barry ignores comes in. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to be messing around with anything that has to do with Lewis Snart?”

Barry thinks about it for a few seconds before deciding that Len will be grateful for a chance to stick it to his father. “If I know Len, he’ll jump at the chance to outdo his dad,” Barry says, grinning. “Even if he’s dead already.”

Cisco gives him a worried look, but stops arguing. Really, it just makes Barry firmer in his belief - Cisco hardly knows Len. Barry  _ does. _

Or, he’d like to think so.

He finds Len in the practice room the next morning, shooting sharp icicles at a dummy Caitlin had dragged up from the recesses of the STAR Labs basement. As Barry enters, he notices the move in more detail - the tips of Len’s fingers are individually covered in ice, which grows into a sharp point as it releases when Len throws his hand in a slicing motion. The five points thud solidly into the dummy, and Barry is more than a little bit turned on. He doesn’t even want to think about what he’d do with Len’s ice covered fingers.

He watches Len go through the motion three more times before he’s finally yanked away by Len drawling, “Enjoying the show?” He turns around and leans against the wall to look at Barry, tilting his head. 

“Uh,” Barry says intelligently. “I, um… yeah.”

Len is smirking, looking inappropriately like the cat who got the cream. “Yeah?”

“No -- I mean, yeah -- I mean -- agh!” Barry throws his hands up in the air, completely over his stuttering. He doesn’t miss the way Len turns his head to hide a small smile, and the warmth it produces in his chest - he made that happen! - inspires at least some semblance of confidence. “I have an offer,” he says, teasing it.

Len raises an eyebrow, smirk firmly in place. “Do you, now?”

“You’re acting like you know what it is,” Barry says, frowning. Cisco would not, under any circumstances, betray Barry’s confidence to Len, and he’s the only one Barry has told. 

Len’s smirk grows into a sly smile, and Barry can’t say that it doesn’t make his knees a little weak. “Maybe,” Len says playfully. “Now, are you going to ask me?”   


“Ask you?” Barry asks, too pleased that Len obviously doesn’t know his plan to really think about what Len actually thought he was going to say. “I’m _offering -_ the gift of a lifetime.”

Len frowns for a split second before he covers it up with another smirk. “I’m listening.”

Barry grins. “I’m going to help you steal the Lancaster Ruby,” he says. “Now, this comes with rules--”

“Not interested.” Len’s voice is flat and unwavering, and it catches Barry off guard.

“Wh - what?” he stammers, frowning at him. “You don’t want to steal something? Is the world ending?” Len frowns, pressing his lips together and looking to the side, eyes downcast. Barry takes a step closer to him. “The rules aren’t that bad, seriously. Or were you just joking this whole time and don’t actually want me to be a Rogue?” Barry laughs nervously, a little hurt, and Len must pick up on it because he swings his head around to look at Barry, scowling.

“It’s something my father wanted me to steal,” Len says with a sneer. “Forgive me for not wanting to go back and do his bidding a second time.”

This is where Barry should drop it. Where he should step back and apologize, and come up with something else for them to do. Barry… doesn’t do that.

Maybe it’s the slight hint of accusation in Len’s voice, or the fact that Barry’s plans are unexpectedly crumbling around him and it’s somehow his fault, but Barry gets on the defensive. “How was I possibly supposed to know that?” he says. “If anything, I thought you’d want to stick it to him. It’s part of the reason I chose the ruby--”

The temperature drops several degrees. Literally.

“You  _ knew? _ ” Len’s expression is briefly betrayed before he forces it back into something more neutral. “Exactly  _ how  _ would it be sticking it to him?” he snaps. “By doing exactly what he wanted me to do?  _ Funny _ .”

Barry wants to snap back that it would be because the ruby would be  _ Len’s _ , not Lewis’, but he can’t even say that when he was planning to return it that night. Instead, he takes a deep breath, vowing not to snap at Len like Len is snapping at him. Despite this, he has trouble keeping the irritation and defense out of his voice when he says, “I didn’t  _ know,  _ Len. Don’t you think that maybe you’re overreacting?”

This is clearly the wrong thing to say, and Barry feels his stomach drop with guilt as Len’s face hardens into an unreadable mask. “No,” Len says coolly. “I don’t.” And with that, he starts walking out, leaving Barry standing frozen with the dummy, frost climbing the walls as the room turns into a makeshift freezer.

“Wait--” Barry says too late, Len already vanished around the corner. Icy footprints are quickly melting away as the temperature stabilizes. He could speed after him, but right now, he kind of just wants to curl up into a ball and die.    


It’s like clarity has swept into his mind, and his mistakes are replaying through his mind in HD. Of  _ course  _ Len wouldn’t like arguing about how he should feel about his abusive father. Of  _ course  _ Barry hurt him by telling him he was overreacting. It doesn’t matter if he was or wasn’t - abuse is a delicate subject, and Barry had gone after it with a sledgehammer.

He only beats himself up more when he realizes that Len had been expecting Barry to ask him on a date.

 

-

 

5.

 

Len doesn’t come back.

It’s day three now, and Barry doesn’t know what to do with himself. He doesn’t have Len’s number and he has a feeling that Len still has a safehouse he doesn’t know about, for “just in case the Flash decides to go after me” scenarios. Although, traveling from safehouse to safehouse just to make sure is sounding like a better idea every day.

“Doesn’t he still have tests to run?” Barry asks Caitlin, who’s looking at something on her personal computer. “It isn’t safe for him to skip those, right?”

Caitlin rolls her eyes, which, fair. This is mostly what Barry has been talking about for the past three days, other than moping on the couch at either her or Cisco’s apartment. “Barry--”

“I just want to know,” Barry says. “So that maybe I can have excuse to go looking for him?”

Caitlin’s face softens, and she looks at him sadly. “Sorry, Bar. He finished his tests a good week ago.”

Barry frowns. “What? Why would he still come here, then?”

Caitlin gives him a Look, and Barry covers his face with his hands as he realizes. “God,” he groans, voice coming out muffled. “I really sabotaged myself, didn’t I?”

“You really did,” Cisco calls from his chair across the room, and Barry removes his hands to glare at him.

“Barry, I think your idea to woo him actually helped,” Caitlin tells him reassuringly. “I think it helped him realize that you were also interested--”

“Which is why you could have asked him out on the first day!” Cisco singsongs. Cisco had played the role of comforting best friend for approximately five minutes before lapsing into an I-told-you-so superiority complex, citing the fact that Barry had been a ‘major dickwad’ to excuse his behavior.

“--but you messed it up with that third gift,” Caitlin finished with a pointed look at Cisco. 

This isn’t as reassuring as she probably means it to be - Barry just feels worse with the reminder that he really could have had everything without even  _ trying,  _ and instead completely and utterly wrecked it for himself.

Cisco’s voice is softer when he speaks again. “Hey,” he says, and Barry looks up at him. He has his cellphone in his hand. “I can call Lisa, if you want. She might be willing to help - she’s always been on the side of making her brother happy, even if it means doing something he doesn’t like.”

Barry could fall to his knees before Cisco in thanks. “Oh my God,  _ thank you, _ ” he says, and Cisco gives him an alarmed look.

“Whoa, there, buddy,” he laughs. “This is definitely  _ not _ a guarantee. I’m pretty sure Lisa has murdered people before for calling Snart the wrong thing.”

“So it all depends on how much Len likes me,” Barry deapans, losing all sense of hope. “Great.”

Cisco leaves the room to call Lisa, and Barry gets on his phone, trying to appease his anxiety with social media and ultimately failing.

Cisco walks in around an hour later, grinning from ear to ear. Barry stands as soon as he walks in, hope flaring excitedly in his chest. “Good news?”

Cisco smile fades, and he rocks his hand back and forth in a ‘kinda-sorta’ gesture. “Kind of? She said to give you this address-” he waves a piece of paper in the air, tiny handwriting scribbled in the corner, “-and to meet her there in half an hour, without your mask.” Barry feels a brief spasm of panic before he squashes it. Lisa is Len’s sister, Cisco’s  _ girlfriend  _ \- Barry’s practically obligated to tell her.

“Also,” Cisco says slowly, drawing out the ‘o’. He’s grinning again. “She told me she loves me.”

“Cisco, that’s  _ amazing _ !” Caitlin practically squeals, and Barry manages a smile, patting Cisco on the shoulder.

“That’s awesome,” he says sincerely. Cisco looks a little put out.

“You  _ know _ that’s probably the reason why she agreed to meet you,” Cisco says, folding his arms across his chest, eyebrow cocked. 

Barry can’t help but laugh at him, feeling his spirits rise a little. He has a fighting chance. “Cisco,” he says, smiling and putting his hands on Cisco’s shoulders. “I’m happy for you, really.”

Cisco’s back to grinning again instantly. “She loves me,” he croons, yanking Barry into a quick hug. “I’m in  _ love. _ ”

“Guess we should add an eighth miracle,” Barry teases, and Cisco lets him go, looking at him with mock offense.

“You take that  _ back,  _ Barry Allen!”

“I could, but it’d still be the truth.”

Cisco playfully shoves him, and Caitlin clears her throat, drawing their attention. Once their eyes are on her, she grins slyly, lifting a pink bottle of something alcoholic up. “Champagne? I’ve been waiting for a chance to break open this baby ever since I found it in Wells’ office.”

They all have glasses, and Barry nervously watches the time as they talk, anxious for his meeting with Lisa. Once Cisco starts talking about the - ahem -  _ plans _ he and Lisa have for later, Barry ducks out with a teasing comment about how nobody wants to hear that.

He speeds to one of the safehouses he’d discovered a while back and enters through the door, rather than phasing through the closest wall (which he’d been tempted to do). Upon entering, he finds Lisa sitting at a table, waiting for him, and a spike of anxiety jumps through him.

He gets an even bigger spike when he notices Mick Rory standing next to her. The pair look a little too much like a mob boss and her bodyguard.

“Why is Rory here?” Barry asks, eying the man warily. Rory glares at him, and Barry has to consciously remind himself that he is the Flash. No one has the right to be that huge.

“He wanted to come,” Lisa says sweetly, and she kicks out the chair beside her, on the opposite side of Rory. “Have a seat.”

Barry presses his lips together, not missing the fact that Lisa was telling him to sit close to her and not at the other side of the table. In words, it sounds inviting - in person, the last thing Barry wants to do is sit near Lisa and Rory. It’s a good intimidation tactic.

Barry sits down, and Lisa looks at him appraisingly. “So you’re the Flash,” she says, and then she laughs. “You’re Cisco’s little friend!  _ Cute _ ! Barry, right?”

Barry nods, and starts to relax. Lisa doesn’t seem angry with him, although Rory is doing a good job of having enough anger for the both of them.

“I messed up,” he blurts. “I made him really upset. I don’t - I don’t know how to make it up to him.”

“You don’t,” Rory growls. “You don’t deserve to.”

“Micky,” Lisa says chastisingly, voice syrupy. Barry realizes suddenly that maybe Lisa isn’t as relaxed as he thought - she’s putting up a front, acting like the sugary sweet honey potter that had helped to kidnap Cisco. She turns back to Barry.

“Cisco told me you wanted help,” she says. “You want my advice? I need to know what you did.”

“I, um…” Barry trails off, embarrassed and more than a little afraid (and he is perfectly justified in that).

Lisa stops smiling. “I need to know, Barry. Don’t worry about shocking me - Lenny doesn’t just start avoiding someone because they did something that hurt his feelings a little.”

Barry explains the situation awkwardly, and by the end, Lisa is pressing her lips together tightly and Rory is practically fuming. There’s a few moments of silence as Lisa visibly calms herself down, and Rory works himself up more. Lisa breaks it with a sigh. “Alright. I’ll help you.”

Both Barry and Lisa jump when Rory kicks the table, nearly knocking over he and Lisa’s beers.

“ _ What? _ ” he snarls, and Lisa whips around to glare at him.

“If I’m remembering correctly, Barry isn’t the only one who’s had to beg for forgiveness,” she hisses, and Rory turns to glare at her instead of Barry.

They hold each others’ gazes for what seems like an eternity before Mick finally breaks away, grabbing his beer and heading for the doors. “‘M going outside,” he snaps, and he definitely slams the door shut.

An idea suddenly pops up in the forefront of Barry’s mind, and it makes him uncomfortable enough that he decides to ask Lisa and break the silence that they’re sitting in. “Were he and Len ever…?”

“Don’t,” Lisa says harshly, but when Barry flinches back her expression softens. “You can ask Lenny,” she says shortly. “If you manage to get through to him.”

“And you’ll help me?”

Lisa looks at him for a few moments, clearly thinking. “What you did wasn’t right, but it was understandable. I get it. I’m also not here to fight my brother’s fights.”

“Rory seems like he is,” Barry mutters, and Lisa glares at him.

“For good reason,” she says sharply. “I’m not going to lie. I’m reluctant. What happened wasn’t a big deal, in the long run - we’re not necessarily upset about the conversation itself. It’s just the type of conversation that warns of bigger and worse misunderstandings and misconceptions.”

Barry instantly starts sputtering out defenses and promises to never do it again, worried that Lisa is going to talk herself out of helping him. Lisa cuts him off mid-ramble.

“That’s the thing - you can’t promise that.” Barry opens his mouth to promise some more, but Lisa holds a hand up. “But I know you’ll try. And you make him happy. So I’ll help you.”

Barry lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “Thank you, Lisa.”

“But if you hurt him,” she says severely, face blank in a way that screams ‘danger!’. “Mick is not the person you need to watch out for.”

Barry nods his understanding, and her expression slowly melts into a shit-eating grin. “Now. Let me share the secrets of my brother’s heart with you.”

She’s impressed by the fact that Barry managed to almost hit a home run in his plan to woo Len, because apparently, the way to Len’s heart really is presents. “The only thing is,” she tells him, smile fond in a way that has Barry missing Iris, Joe, and Wally, off visiting extended family. Barry had stayed behind because he was busy helping Len. “You need to get him a gift from the heart. Jewelry and flowers are fine, but he’ll practically melt into a puddle if you get him something only you can get him, or at least something only you know he likes.” She gives him a bittersweet smile. “He always liked my handmade birthday cards better than whatever I had Mick buy from the store for me.”

Barry soaks it all in, desperate for more pieces of Len, and immediately starts thinking of gift ideas. “And I’m supposed to give this to him how?”

“Do you have the address Cisco wrote down for you?” 

Barry nods and slides the slip of paper over. Lisa flips it over to the blank side and grabs a pen from her jacket, scribbling something down. She slides it back. “Here. Don’t screw it up - he won’t tell me where he goes next if you scare him off again.”

She’s written an address on the other side, letters loopy and large. Barry smiles, tucking it into his pocket. “Noted.” He stands to speed off, maybe to consult with Cisco or Caitlin on ideas, and Lisa puts a hand on his arm. 

“I just remembered,” she says with a funny smirk on her face, like she’s trying to be suave but is having a hard time keeping her laugh in. “He mentioned something about capturing lightning in a jar because it was so captivating. It stuck because he  _ never  _ says stuff like that.”

Barry smiles, that warmth coming up to fill his chest again, and speeds away, wondering if Cisco can devise a plan to trap lightning in a jar.

He doesn’t, but they figure out that lightning can make uniquely shaped pieces of glass when it strikes sand, and Barry immediately speeds off to the nearest lakeshore. He runs on the sand, imagining his lightning creating fulgurites with every step, and stops only to find that at most, his lightning had licked at the sand to create tiny, paper thin sheets.

“Okay,” he says to himself, thinking. Maybe if he--

He accesses the Speedforce without running, and puts all of his focus into forcing everything down. He runs a little more and turns, hopefully, only to find the same result.

It takes three more failed theories before Barry is piling sand up so that it’s taller than him, and speeding straight into it. It works. Barry’s covered in sand and sweating, but it  _ works.  _ He choses a smaller piece and places it in the wire cage on the necklace he and Cisco had fashioned, and he takes a deep breath, heart beating faster than it usually does.

“Go time,” he says to himself, and then he’s speeding towards Len, to an old newspaper factory on the outskirts of Central. 

He  _ does  _ phase through the wall this time, checking every floor until he finds Len, facing away from the door and bent over what look like blueprints. By all accounts, Barry is silent in the Speedforce, moving too fast for people to hear him, but Len still visibly tenses once he’s entered the room.

“Barry,” Len greets, voice flat. He doesn’t turn around, and it might be inappropriate, but Barry gets a little frisson of excitement at the thought that Len can sense that it’s him without looking.

“Len,” Barry says, and he doesn’t bother to hide the emotion in it. It seems to be a good call, because Len turns around, too deliberately smooth in his motions, too relaxed where he leans his back against the table.

“I imagine Lisa told you where I am,” Len says, voice betraying nothing.

“She did,” Barry says carefully. “She also told me how to make it up to you.”

“Did she.”

“She did.” Barry swallows. “She told me I make you happy.”

This sparks a reaction: a sneer. “Not everything people tell you is true, Barry.”

Barry tightens his lips. “Don’t lie to me.”

They stand in silence for a long time, and Len slowly tenses up. “Is this all you have to say? Because I’m--”

“I brought you something,” Barry says in one exhale, and he tosses Len the necklace. Len catches it, enveloping it in his fist without looking at it, never looking away from Barry’s face. His hard expression softens imperceptibly. Barry’s proud that he can tell.

“I’m sorry,” Barry says, taking a few steps closer to Len. Len lets him. “I - shouldn’t have reacted the way I did. Shouldn’t have said what I said.” Len looks away, eyes lowered to the floor. It’s amazing how obvious his tell is, honestly. “I admit, I didn’t really see it as a huge deal. I messed up, you got upset -  _ that  _ I understood. But you avoiding me? I didn’t really know why you weren’t fighting with me about it if you were still mad. But Lisa - Lisa helped me understand that it implicated things that I was completely clueless about. And even though I didn’t know, I am  _ sorry. _ ”

Len still won’t look at him, but he does look at the necklace, finally. “And this?” he asks, voice still deceptively neutral. 

“I, uh - Lisa said something about you liking m -- lightning. That’s… that’s my lightning and what it did to sand. It’s called a fulgurite.”

Len doesn’t move, just keeps looking at it, blue eyes taking in every detail. He eventually curls his hand around it and tucks it into his jacket pocket.

Gift accepted. That’s a good sign.

Len looks back up at him, and he’s smirking. “Alright, Scarlet. You’ve won me over.”

Barry lets out a breath. “Oh, thank God.” And before he knows what he’s doing, he’s sped up to Len and is kissing him within the Speedforce.

It is - quite literally -  _ electric.  _

Especially when Len starts kissing back.

Lightning licks their skin almost comfortingly, heat and a small buzz fluttering over their arms, necks, and faces. A particularly zealous one crackles against Barry’s cheek when Len does something with his tongue, and Len gasps when another one travels from Barry’s hand to his cheek, where it’s cradling him.

Barry stops immediately, pulling away and hands fluttering over Len’s face, concerned. “Oh my God, I am so sorry,” he says quickly. Len frowns at him. “I’ve never done that before, I didn’t think the lightning would touch me like that, let alone you--”

“ _ Barry, _ ” Len interrupts, grabbing his wrists and holding him still. “It felt  _ good.  _ Amazing, actually.”

“Oh,” Barry says faintly, and then he grins. “Try again?”

Len doesn’t waste any time in claiming Barry’s lips with his own, not even bothering to let Barry access the Speedforce beforehand. 

It’s just as electric, though.

 

-

 

+1

 

They’re a week into dating when Len pulls Barry into the practice room during a collective lunch break, only telling Barry to just let it happen when he resists.

Len shuts the door behind them, and Barry tries not to shiver - the room literally feels like a walk-in freezer. The snowballs that Len had been messing around with haven’t melted at all, and the icicles still buried in the dummy are in pristine condition. 

“Is this about the frost messages?” Barry asks (and he’s not whining - he’s not. He’s just hungry and he’d only gotten a few mouthfuls of Pad Thai before Len had nabbed him.) “Because Cisco already told me about that, which means the surprise is ruined, which means it can wait until after lunch.”

“It’s not about that,” Len says, although he does look a little put out. Cisco had told Barry that Len could sneak messages from other rooms - Cisco had been working on something in the main lab area when frost had spread rapidly across the floor from the hallway, before stopping a few feet away from Cisco and spelling out a message: “Cool enough for you?”

(Cisco had taken to calling each one of Len’s tricks ‘lame’, and it’s become almost a game - Len pushes himself harder in order to impress Cisco, and Cisco has to actively keep a straight face when he lies and tells Len that it doesn’t impress him - which is  _ hard _ , for Cisco.)

“Why cursive, by the way?” Barry asks, smirking. Len rolls his eyes.

“The frost has to stay connected to me, which means the letters have to stay connected.  _ Now, _ ” he says, and Barry smiles at the way his Central City slums accent makes the word sharp and nasal. “What we came here for. Which, by the way, is much more fun and a lot less useful.”

“Alright, show me,” Barry says, smiling and crossing his arms. “I’m ready to be wowed.”

Len glares at him for half a second before his eyes fall to his hands, and his brow furrows in concentration rather than pretend annoyance. His hands make strange shapes in the air, long fingers twisting and turning, and Barry watches as snowflakes materialize and begin to stick to one another, hardening into ice. Barry is suddenly impressed - Len is making a  _ sculpture _ .

Barry soon realizes that Len is making lightning, delicate and jagged, and when he finishes, sculpture resting in the palm of his hand, Barry only keeps himself from touching it because the individual bolts look fragile enough to snap under the smallest of pressures.

(Melting it isn’t a concern, even though Barry runs hot - they had found out soon enough that Len’s ice doesn’t melt unless Len wants it to.)

“Oh my God, Len,” Barry says, and Len smirks at him. “It’s beautiful. Can I, can I…?” Barry reaches a hand out tentatively.

Len grabs Barry’s wrist and turns it so that the palm of his hand is facing upwards, and he slides the sculpture from his palm to Barry’s. Barry brings it up to his face in order to admire it up close.

“Who knew you were such an artist?” Barry can’t resist teasing, still looking at it. 

“Well, thievery has a certain art to it,” Len says, leaning back against the door and tilting his head to look at Barry. “And this is much easier to do than painting.”

Barry sets it gently on the table, already making plans in his head for it. A necklace. To match the one that Len carries around in his pocket. He turns back to Len, grinning as he grabs the lapels of his coat.

“C’mere,” he says, and Len more than willingly obeys. In order to celebrate, Barry accesses the Speedforce, something they only do when they’re feeling particularly self-indulgent. They kiss, and Barry can’t resist pushing Len up against the door, knee coming up between Len’s legs.

Len makes a noise that makes Barry absolutely weak in the knees, and he decides that he doesn’t care if Cisco and Caitlin catch them.

He’s falling in love. And very turned on. It’s worth the embarrassment.

**Author's Note:**

> ugh this fic was so self-indulgent... even though it was a gift. i hope y'all enjoyed ;)
> 
> flower meanings
> 
> \- daffodils - new beginnings
> 
> \- lilacs - first feelings of love
> 
> \- peonies - romance


End file.
